Sourcing reading material

Finding an English book title in Belgium is not really a given, as the lingo used here is Dutch, French and German.
But I promised to bring the little gal to the local bookstore and source out some reading lecture for her.

We barely entered the shop and her sharp eye caught hold of her favourite reading series....."Geronimo Stilton"!!!!!

Laetitia rushed like a girl ,who desperately needs some candies to quelch her sweet tooth, to that particular section but she suddenly applied full brakes when she reached the table displaying the Geronimo books. And her whole body demeanour changed, displaying total disappointment.

"What the h...?!?!" I thought, so I calmly made my way to her to see what was wrong.

Aaaaaaaah, the Geronimo books for sale were all in Dutch!!!!

Tough luck, girl .... continue your search.

Oh what a beautiful day

Browing through our media archive of our recent trip to Hong Kong and stumbled upon this clip. How could I have missed it?

Couldn't resist to show this to you.....the little lady in a splendid mood doing her thing.....enjoy the innocence and exuberance of childhood.

Snow White's friends

Winter time.......and climate change or not....it's still freezing cold.

We, humans, tuck ourselves in cold-weather outfit, stuff ourselves with lots of calorie-rich food, hot drinks and turn on the heater to the max.

But there are other living beings who are not as fortunate as we are....and who suffer tremendously during these yearly bouts of harsh, cold weather.....namely our feathered friends, the birds.

In a bout of compassion, Mainwah (that's my bro) had hung some satchels of birdfeed on a tree. And sure enough, the whole gaggle of neighbourhood birds sensing that there was free food in the offing descended upon those foodsatchels like a pack of hungry, ravenous wolves.

Ofcourse, those satchels became empty in no time.

As it happened to be, my dearest girl noticed those empty satchels and busy-body as she is, she enquired what the use of those satchels were. I duly explained to her what they were supposed to be used for, but since that they were empty the chances of the birds finding enough food to eat is virtually nihil and therefore some of them might.........perish.....or in plain lingo,...die.

My little dragon girl pondered over it for a while and suddenly asked me to replenish the foodsatchels asap. Well, well, well.........my daughter suddenly cares for the well-being of birds? That's a new one.....So I asked her why?

"Daddy, I don't want the birds to die, because they are Snow White's best friends!!"

Gosh, I didn't realize that animations contained a "Save the Birdies" message.

Hallo SinterKlaas, .... Goodbye Santa Clause

December 6 is synonimous with 'Sinterklaas Dag' in the low countries (Holland & Belgium).....the Patron of Children who rewards all the good children and showers them with presents.

As a matter of fact, Santa Clause is a 'copy' of this aforementioned historical person.....but heck, I'm not going to divulge myself into a discussion about who's who.

For those of you who are already wondering what I'm blubbering about, click on the link below...(phew, thanks wikipedia....saves me some explanation)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Anyway, yesterday was Sinterklaas day in Belgium, but since that the little lady is ignorant about this particular dude in red cape, I didn't notify his 'Holy Highness' to shower her with some gifts. So no gifts for her........yeah, right...in my dreams.

Took her to an authentic Belgian bakery (mmmmhhmmm, nothing beats the smell of freshly oven-baked bread, buns and tarts.... and lo and behold.....'Zwarte Piet'......SinterKlaas' helper was awaiting for her with a gift. Laetitia's eyes went wide and she stood there speechless, lol. Had to jolt her awake and inform her to say the 'thank' word. :)

After that our trip to the butcher, grocer and newspaper vendor produced some more spoils for her in the form of sweets and small toys respectively.

Grandma couldnt be outdone ofcourse by SinterKlaas as she miraculously came up with a life-sized doll and on top of all the above toys and sweets, my bro's cook, Steven, gave her a big Sinterklaas chocolate figure.

My oh my, I think my girl will throw overboard Santa Clause and embrace Sinterklaas from now onwards. :p

Heartfelt thanks to NS

Terra Firma on the good 'ol continent....and apart from the miserable, cold winter weather the reception we've received was very heart warming.

Hats off to the staff of the Dutch Railways (NS) who friendly helped us through on our final leg of our journey back to our home town. I have to admit that despite the awfully, early morning hour....they were good humoured enough to put a smile on our tiring faces after an agonizing long trip on a jam-packed aeroplane.

This is definitely a good omen for our Belgian holiday :)